Hurricanes will look to entire roster for deep playoff run

Halifax Hurricanes’ power forward Tyrone Watson works the ball inside during a game against the Saint John Riptide at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax on Jan. 26.

Basketball purists have jostled with the coaching conundrum for decades.

For the Halifax Hurricanes’ bench boss Mike Leslie however, it’s no head-scratcher — two fouls early on and take a seat for a while.

It’s not necessarily what the 30-plus-year basketball coach has defined as a hard-and-fast rule, but it’s the luxury his Hurricanes have provided him in his first year on the sidelines in the professional ranks.

“I think it speaks to the quality of the players on our roster, but it also speaks to the unselfishness of the players who are involved as well,” Leslie said, whose team sits alone in the Atlantic standings with a 22-7 record with 11 games to play in the regular season.

“You can have nine or 10 players who all play but, if they’re not happy about sharing minutes and their stats being reduced for the betterment of the team, it means nothing.

“We’ve worked hard to create a culture of working as hard as you can (and) then turning it over to the next player with the comfort and satisfaction of knowing that you did your job. The next guy will do his. And through it all, we’ll support each other and have a mutual respect in that process.”

Leslie’s player-carousel philosophy couldn’t have been better exemplified than in the team’s latest match-up against the Prince Edward Island Storm on March 19.

With 4:28 to go in the first quarter, the club’s leading scorer, Billy White, picked up two quick fouls and promptly planted his behind on the bench for the rest of the half. He finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and 32 minutes in the end.

“Regardless of what you do or how unconventional it may be, the players have to buy into that and ours have,” Leslie said.

Of the 10 teams in the NBLC, the Hurricanes have the fewest number of players (White and Tyrone Watson) averaging 30-plus minutes per outing. Halifax is also one of only four teams in the league to not have a single member go over the 35-minute-a-game threshold. There’s a deeper strategy at play.

“At this point and time in the season we want to conserve players and keep bodies relatively healthy for the playoffs but we also want to establish our depth and identify who would be able to play longer minutes down the stretch of the season,” Leslie said, whose club has the lowest minutes-per-game team-leader in the league with White’s 31.7.

“We want to make it so that anyone can play in the playoffs depending on match-ups and situations. We also want everyone to be familiar with everyone and make sure that no one is overwhelmed in the moment when it comes to the playoffs . . . everyone has to see the court for that to happen.”

The players — even those on the short end of the stick — appear to be buying in as well.

“Sometimes you may come in a little tight, a little cold but whatever (coach) wants I’ll be ready for it and that will be my rhythm for that game. I have a guy who plays 30 minutes (per game) at my position but I can’t control that,” said Coreontae DeBerry, who averages a team-low 7.2 minutes per game.

“He is the coach after all so we’re going to ride with it.”

Leslie tries his best to help establish that rhythm as well.

“If the game is going as it typically would, there is sort of a usual pattern for the substitutions so that guys can be ready for their chance. We usually have an approximate rotation time to move players in and out,” he said.

Watching Hurricanes’ games over the course of the season, it’s clear that the team’s flow has now been established.

Joey Haywood and Ta’Quan Zimmerman have been largely designated as the scoring spark-plugs off the bench while others like Anthony Cox and DeBerry provide the end-of-quarter patchwork for starters White and C.J. Washington.

Sometimes, however, players wave off the routine.

Just not in the way you may think.

“I’ve had players come up to me about four or five times in the run of the season and say ‘look coach, let him run a little longer. I think he’s got it going a little bit right now.’ To have players say that to you, it shows that there’s a mutual respect and trust that they don’t have to prove anything to their teammates or to me,” he said.

“They just want what’s best for their team. It’s refreshing, it’s not the norm, it’s not the usual.